I’ve been bad about updating because I’ve spent most of my time the last few days trying to plan a road trip. And the thing is that I’m horribly nerdy and when I decide to do something like this I have to Have A Plan. The basic idea is that I have a three day weekend that coincides with Valentine’sDay, and neither F or I have seen the Grand Canyon, so we thought, hey, let’s go see the Grand Canyon. But then it was like… and what else are we going to do besides drive to the Grand Canyon and back. And I was like Hoover Dam.

And then I spent 3 days researching what sorts of things there are to do on the legs of the trip and once we got places. Like I learned of a place called Grand Canyon West, where there’s this horrifying/tacky/awesome thing called the Skywalk, where you essentially walk out onto glass above the Grand Canyon. Think Indiana Jones’ leap of faith, but less cool. It’s much much closer to the Hoover Dam and Vegas, but it’s also extremely expensive and not as high up as the South Rim. I weighed pros and cons and decided that the South Rim was the <i>real</i> Grand Canyon, so I’d better see that.

I’ve been trying to come up with things to do in Las Vegas that I wouldn’t hate, and I’ve had a few suggestions, but you’re welcome to comment here. Keep in mind that I don’t drink, gamble, or do things where the main objective is to “have fun” rather than do something in particular. We were thinking we might try to get some tickets to see Penn&Teller, they do the 1/2 price thing like in NYC. The Erotic Heritage Museum looked interesting, and it’s open til midnight. “The Chapel Theater will prominently feature Shakespeare’s erotic material. This material has not been performed in four hundred years. Be prepared to be “Bard to the Bone” and experience Shakespeare in an entirely new fashion.” Bard to the Bone. Oh dear.

It also seems likely that we’ll pass through Baker which has two things that are heavily recommended by travelers. Alien Jerky, supposedly the best jerky ever, I’m not a jerky eater, but F is. And the Mad Greek. I’m not necessarily sold on either, but they’re there.

Alterniraries

LA to Tusakan AZ 8 hours
(I-40)
-Drive through JoshuaTree +50 mins
-Visit Grand Canyon Caverns +1 hour (plus visiting time of probably an hour, closes at 4)
–Roadkill Cafe (off the interstate, adds only the time of visit)
NOTE: I think we wouldn’t be happy trying to get to the caverns before 4 on this leg

Tusakan AZ to Las Vegas NV 5 hours
(I-40 to 93)
-Visit Grand Canyon Caverns +1 hour (plus visiting time of probably an hour, closes at 4)
-Roadkill Cafe (off the interstate, adds only the time of visit)
-Hoover Dam (adds only time of visit, closes at 4:15)
NOTE: I think we can’t do the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon in the same day, unless we get super bored with the Grand Canyon early

Las Vegas NV to LA 4.5 hours
(I-15)
-Hoover Dam +60 minutes round trip, +30 minutes if taking 95 (closes at 4:15)
-Drive by DeathValley +2 hours
-Take 95 to I-40 +2 hours; +1:30 if driving from Hoover Dam (if we don’t go by Joshua Tree, we will have driven this stretch already)
NOTE: I’d like to see the Hoover Dam, but we will be driving over it, so if we don’t make it to a tour, I’d be fine.